Many computer-security software programs require the ability to persist data associated with a given file. For example, security software may store one or more attributes of a file as metadata to the file. Examples of attributes that may be stored as metadata to a file include a last-scanned date, a last-modified date, a hash, a digital signature, or file-ancestry information for the file.
Unfortunately, many security software solutions are unable to determine the reliability of such metadata without spending valuable processor time checking or recalculating the metadata. However, without verifying the validity or reliability of such metadata, security software may not know whether such metadata is legitimate or valid.